[aix thinkpad] ThinkPad 860 and AIX versions.

[Stefan Tibus]

Hello all, 

I just acquired an IBM 7249-860 some days ago and am 
playing around with installing different versions of 
AIX on it.
So far I found out that even AIX 5.1 can be run on this 
machine, however I was stuck with running on the serial 
console. The power management, PCMCIA, graphics and sound 
drivers from AIX 4.1.5 installed but besides the fact, that 
with installed PM the power button shuts the system down 
correctly I have not verified their function. All devices 
besides the GT20 have shown up as "available" though.
Regarding the GT20 "cfgmgr" complains it cannot load the 
kernel extension.

AIX 4.3.3 works from the serial console also, and by 
installing the graphics drivers from 4.1.5 and replacing 
/usr/lib/methods/cfg_lft (in devices.graphics.com) by the 
4.3.3 one the graphics console works nicely. PCMCIA and 
sound drivers are provided by 4.3.3, the power management 
device drivers can be installed from 4.1.5 and seem to 
work also.
Up to now I have not managed to make X work in this configuration.
>From what I found on the web, X support for the 860 was 
dropped with AIX 4.2.1, however one could use X by installing 
/usr/lpp/X11/bin/X from the 4.1.5 packages or by installing 
a hacked version of /usr/lpp/gai/pci33531288/loadddx. 
Neither of them worked on 4.3.3. The X taken from 4.1.5 tells 
me to run "smit cfgmgr" as it cannot find the graphics driver 
files, but doing so does not help (maybe this is due to 
changes in the ODM?), and the hacked 4.2.1 loadddx as well as 
the original 4.1.5 loadddx lead to "cannot load .../loadddx" 
and a list of symbols, when used with X from 4.3.3.
However this might just be a problem of changes in the file 
format for loadddx and thus it might be resolved by hacking 
it (at least I suppose this is what somebody had done on 4.2.1).

I have not found any information on this hack on the web up 
to know, so I'd like to ask anyone to look if he has some 
information on it...
...any other suggestions on this issue are welcome as well.

Thanks in advance,
Stefan